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The story of his journey is told in " Il Milione " ( " The Million " ) , unremarkably call " The Travels of Marco Polo . " Polo ’s dangerous undertaking influenced European mapmakers and inspiredChristopher Columbus .
In Polo ’s day and even today , there has been some incertitude about whether Polo really went toChina . However , most experts agree that he did indeed make the journeying .
Marco Polo
Early life
Marco Polo was stomach around 1254 into a wealthy Venetian merchandiser family , though the factual day of the month and fix of his parturition are strange . His father , Niccolo , and his uncle Maffeo were successful precious stone merchants who spent much of Marco ’s childhood in Asia . Marco ’s female parent died when he was young ; therefore , young Marco was in the main raised by protracted folk .
" The merchandiser families were the movers and Shaker of commerce and government in mediaeval Venice , " Susan Abernethy ofThe Freelance History Writertold LiveScience . They expanded long - distance business deal and mass began to expect availability to the alien goods they brought . Merchants , like the Polo family , became increasingly moneyed .
The Polo brothers went as far as China , then call Cathay , during their traveling . They met the Mongol leader , Kublai Khan , at his court in Beijing . Kublai Khan , grandson of the outstanding conqueror Genghis Khan , expressed stake in Christianity and requested that the Polo chum retort to Rome to speak to the Bishop of Rome on his behalf . Khan wanted the Bishop of Rome to transport the Polo brothers back to Beijing with holy water and 100 learned priests .
Shizu, better known as Kublai Khan, as he would have appeared in the 1260s
When Marco was 15 , his father and uncle bring back home . Though the Roman Catholic Pope did not deed over their request , the Polo brothers decided to devolve to Asia . This prison term , they took 17 - year - old Marco with them .
The slow road to China
The party voyage in the south from Venice across the Mediterranean to the Holy Land . They had add two friars — the best they could do for Kublai Khan ’s request — but upon getting a taste of difficult travel life history , the friar turned back . The Polos continue , traveling primarily overland and swing over north and S through Armenia , Persia , Afghanistan and the Pamir Mountains . Then , they reduce across the vast Gobi Desert to Beijing .
The journey took three or four years and was overabundant with hardships and adventure . Marco Polo abridge an sickness and was pull to take resort in the mountains of northern Afghanistan for an lengthy period of time . Polo trace there being " nothing at all to eat up , " in the Gobi Desert . Nevertheless , young Marco Polo delight a knifelike sense of escapade and curiosity , exact in the muckle , flavor and cultural phenomena with wonder .
In Xanadu, with Kublai Khan
last , the Polos turn over Beijing and met Kublai Khan at the summertime palace , Xanadu , a resplendent marble and amber social system that enchanted young Marco . Khan jubilantly received the Polos . He invited them to stay and for Niccolo and Maffeo to become part of his court . Marco immersed himself in Chinese culture , apace learning the spoken language and taking banker’s bill of customs . Khan was impressed and eventually appointed Marco the position of special envoy .
" I suspect Marco was educated and erudite and magical , " pronounce Abernethy . " He learned to speak four languages and exhibited a great curiosity and leeway regarding his surroundings and the masses he met with . Khan recognize his talents … Polo was devoted to serve the Emperor . "
This position allowed Marco to trip to the far reaches of Asia — station like Tibet , Burma and India ; places that Europeans had never before seen . Over the years , Marco was advertise to regulator of a great Formosan metropolis , to the tax inspector in Yaznhou , and to an official arse on the Khan ’s Privy Council .
" Khan render Marco and his family with a ' paiza ' — a amber tablet which authorized him to make use of a immense internet of majestic horses and lodgings . This in consequence was an official passport making the Polos honored node of the emperor and allowing them to travel freely throughout Asia , " say Abernethy .
Through it all , Marco Polo marvel at China ’s ethnic customs , great riches and complex social structure . He was impressed with the empire ’s paper money , efficient communicating system , ember burning , powder and porcelain , and called Xanadu " the great castle that ever was . "
Return home
The Polos stay in China for 17 years , amassing vast wealth of precious stone and gold . When they decided to return to Venice , distressed Khan requested that they escort a Mongol princess to Persia , where she was to tie a prince .
During the two - yr replication journeying by ocean across the Indian Ocean , 600 passengers and members of the crew give way . By the time they reached Hormuz in Persia and allow for the princess , just 18 the great unwashed remain alive on board . The promised prince , too , was drained , so the Polos had to linger in Persia until a worthy friction match for the princess could be establish .
finally , the Polos made it back to Venice . After being cash in one’s chips for 24 years , people did not recognize them and the Polos struggle to speak Italian .
Legacy
Three years after returning to Venice , Marco Polo assumed command of a Venetian ship in a war against Genoa . He was captured and , while being held in a Genovese prison house , he met a fellow prisoner , a romance writer called Rustichello . When prompted , Polo dictated his dangerous undertaking to Rustichello . These writings , written in French , were title " Books of the Marvels of the World , " but are better know in English as " The Travels of Marco Polo . "
" Polo ’s book was what we would call a " blockbuster hit " and made Marco Polo a household name . , " allege Abernethy . " At first , many see the leger as fabrication , more like a chivalric fabrication with its ostensibly improbable tales and descriptions of fantastical animals . Many copies of the leger were created and it was translate into several languages . It was only after Polo ’s expiry that people realized the Bible curb the true statement about his travels and what he witnessed . "
to boot , some reader questioned Polo ’s dependability , perhaps leading to the Word ’s popular Italian title , " Il Milione , " curt for " The Million Lies . " Some questioned whether Polo even went to China or if the integral thing was rumour .
There were several reasons multitude doubted the veracity of the Quran . One was its composition appendage . Polo dictated from his plentiful notes , and Rustichello ( or Rusticiano ) , who was an author of some renown " may have embellished the story , " said Abernethy .
The publication procedure of the time could also lead to accuracy being magnify or changed . The book come about before the print press , and hand - copied manuscript are open to human error and wilful changes , according to Abernethy .
" There are what seem to be some glaring skip , " she said . " Marco Polo does n’t mention the Great Wall of China , foundation ski binding , tea leaf or the habit of chopstick . However , none of this is unusual . There are other chronicler throughout story who omitted obvious information from their writings . "
It is also potential that Polo wittingly embellished or recounted level he heard from other travelers . " Some of the tale seem far - fetched and it ’s clear Polo did n’t witness some of the related selective information , " said Abernethy . " Polo may have been jolly naïve about what he was witnessing and seen everything through Western eyes , create dissension in the narrative . He may also have recounted stories he heard from other traveller . "
That’s his story and he’s sticking to it
Polo stood by the book , however , and go on to set forth a line of work , marry and sire three girl . When Polo was on his deathbed in 1324 , visitant urged him to hold the book was fiction , to which he splendidly proclaimed , " I have not told one-half of what I date . "
Though no authorised version of Polo ’s Scripture be , researchers and historians in the subsequent centuries have swear much of what he reported . It is generally take that he reported dependably what he could , though some account likely come from others that he fulfil along the room .
" It seems the preponderance of the evidence reveals that Polo did indeed visit China , " said Abernethy . " He brings to light detailed selective information on the currency used , include paper up-to-dateness . He mentions the employment of burning coal . The data point he provides on salt production and revenues show a meticulous casualness on the issue . Many of the place figure he gives in the story have now been identified . His verbal description of the Grand Canal of China is extremely accurate . Indeed , the assumption that he did n’t visit China make more question than it answers . "
The information in his book proved vital to European geographic understanding and inspired countless Internet Explorer — including Christopher Columbus , who , it is said , took a transcript of Polo ’s Christian Bible with him in 1492 .
" About fifty year after Polo ’s expiry , his work start to be utilized in the making of map , " tell Abernethy . " cartographer use the description of his travel itinerary and the name and terms he used to intend locations in the draught of their maps . "
Who knew?
Marco Polo did not introduce alimentary paste to Italy . The dish had already survive in Europe for C , consort to History.com .
The claim that he brought ice cream to Europe is also disputed . A French ice - emollient sea captain , Gerard Taurin , argues that Polo didintroduce ice cream from China . According to the International Dairy Foods Association , Polo returned with a recipe that resembled modern - daytime sherbet , and this recipe may have evolved into water ice cream in the 16th century .
Polo was one of the first Europeans to see a rhino . However , he thought they were unicorns .
Some student believe that Polo wasborn on the island of Korculaon the Adriatic coast , in what is today Croatia , fit in to a 2011 article in the Telegraph . According to this theory , his father was a merchandiser from Dalmatia named Maffeo Pilic , who changed his last name to Polo when he relocated to Venice .
In 2011 , Italy object when a museum dedicated to Polo in the Chinese metropolis of Yangzhou was open not by Italian diplomat but by a former Chief Executive of Croatia , Stjepan Mesic . Mesic described Polo as a " world explorer , carry in Croatia , who unfold up China to Europe . "
extra imagination
